Begin Again
Begin Again
Olivert was the first of the three to reach the doors of the orphanage. He held open the door for Shayna and the doc. Both of them entered, still hand in hand. Shayna squeezed the doc's hand a little tighter. She had never been so nervous in her entire life.
"After you!" said Olivert, oblivious to Shayna's uneasiness. "Like old times!" he said laughing to himself a little bit. "Front desk is over here!"
Despite Shayna's feelings towards the orphanage, it was not an awful-looking building, though it was obviously very old. It had tall ceilings and a lot of glass and brick rooms. The floors were made of a toneless white marble, which looked exquisite on its own, but dirty when there were smudges from footprints. There were many along the center of the long hall in front of them, which extended all the way to the end of the building. Still, there was a sort of modern touch to it as well and it looked pleasant enough, though not to Shayna, who couldn't bear the thought of staying here alone without somebody familiar. To her it looked like a prison, red and huge and foreign.
There was a large metal machine lined with red "electricity", or at least Shayna supposed, to the left as they walked in.
Olivert began walking forward to a long, curving tan desk with a young woman behind it, who was scribbling down something onto a piece of paper with a worn out pencil. She was a very busy woman, but noticed the three of them and stopped what she was doing. It was easy for her to anticipate what the doc and Olivert would be doing at the orphanage with a little girl.
"Hi," said Olivert, beginning a conversation.
The machine to the left opened up almost as soon as Shayna and the doc had passed it. There were something like ten children who burst out, sprinting down the hallway towards the brick and glass rooms at the end. They ran right past Shayna and only a few noticed her. One boy looked back for a moment curiously. He wasn't very tall or short. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, like Shayna, and didn't say anything. He just looked and turned back around, running back down the hallway with the other children.
Shayna hadn't said anything either. She just looked at him and then back towards the doc, shocked to see children like her. Her eyes were wide with excitement. It was the first time she'd ever seen any, besides herself of course. She was still nervous as ever—terrified, actually. They'd seemed normal enough, whatever normal was, and Shayna guessed that they were all around her age, but still. She couldn't help but feel a great sense of strangeness.
Olivert, who was very unsuccessfully conversing with the lady, looked back at the doc, his eye squinting tightly around his spectacle. "Doc, I think you should explain the situation to this nice lady here." He pointed at the lady who smiled and put her hand up in greeting. It was obvious she wanted somebody sane, or at least sane enough, to decipher what Olivert was trying to explain.
"Oh, yes!" said the doc. Shayna and he walked up to the desk. He began to speak.
"Hello, Miss. I am Dr. Symond Vert. Pleased to meet you." He extended his hand and shook the lady's.
Shayna decided that Olivert was correct in telling her that everybody did this peculiar greeting. It was still strange to Shayna, but she felt as if it was going to become very normal very quickly. She hoped she was wrong.
The doc continued talking and explained the situation with Shayna to the lady, who was making faces of horror and shock appropriately. The doc was waving his hands around and fidgeting with his mustache, as it seemed was his habit, conveying the message obviously more effectively—and dramatically—than Olivert had. Shayna didn't notice and instead stared back at the doors. She hoped for a sign of her father, or at least something that would reassure her that her father was coming. She dare not think of the alternative, let alone the bang she'd heard when she'd he'd had her run from the cabin. Minutes passed by as the doc and the lady spoke, yet no such thing appeared while she had her eyes upon the doors.
When the doc was done speaking with the lady behind the desk, the lady got up and came around, approaching Shayna. She was a fairly tall brunette and wore heels and a skirt, which Shayna thought she'd seen before in a certain kind of clothing book her father had given her. What had it been called… a magazine, maybe?
"Hello, Shayna," said the lady, kneeling to reach to Shayna's height. "I'm Miss Blitzer." She extended her right hand, which Shayna took unenthusiastically, thinking again on how she may very well get used to handshaking. "It's good to meet you."
Shayna didn't say anything.
The doc spoke to Miss Blitzer, explaining a little more to her. "She's very smart, just a little shy right now, as you can imagine." He tried to smile at Shayna reassuringly, which didn't do much. "She was talking a lot with me, so give her time. I think she'll come around."
"Okay," said Miss Blitzer in a patient and kind way, still looking at Shayna. "You're not usually this shy?"
Shayna had met the only other person she'd ever seen in her entire life, besides her father, hours ago—and it was Olivert at that. She didn't know if she was usually shy. She hadn't been when trying to get to the orphanage, so she supposed that she wasn't usually shy and simply shook her head and looked down to her shoes.
Miss Blitzer gently grabbed her by her shoulders. "Hey, it's alright. Tell me anything you want; whenever you want! No rush."
Miss Blitzer stood up and started speaking to the doctor. "She can stay here. This is what we do—take in children. I'll get her playing with the other kids and make sure there's a bed ready for her. Thank you so much for bringing her, Doctor Vert and—," she looked at Olivert.
"Olivert," said Olivert.
"And Olivert," she said with a nod and smile. "Thank you very much."
"Yes," said the doctor. "I expect she'll be very well taken care of here."
"She will," said Miss Blitzer reassuringly.
"Good… well, I should be going. I must get home soon or my wife will start getting worried—or at least I hope she will," he joked a little, trying to lighten the mood, but failing. "Anyways…"
The doc walked over to Shayna and kneeled down like Miss Blitzer, though it was more difficult for him. With a grunt or two he managed, and was down to Shayna's height.
"Shayna…," he started uneasily. "Olivert and I are going to go now. Miss Blitzer is going to take care of you, okay? If your father comes, he'll come here. This is the best place for you."
Shayna looked down and then up at him. She didn't cry, but a few tears fell from her eyes. She didn't know anybody, so it seemed fitting enough that she should ask the doc, somebody who could explain some answers to the many questions she had about this new world of hers. "Can you come visit me?"
"Of course I can." said the doctor in a hushed and polite tone, almost immediately. His heart was near melted. "Anytime… Should I come around at the end of the week to see how you're doing?"
Shayna only nodded.
"Okay," said the doctor, giving Shayna a brief hug. "I'll see you then!"
Shayna was still feeling awfully alone, but it made her feel a little bit better knowing that she had at least one person she knew and could perhaps confide in.
The doc got up and grabbed his luggage and asked Miss Blitzer if it was alright to visit within the week. She nodded, nearly tearing up herself.
He walked to the door, which Olivert was holding open.
"I'll see you later on, Shayna! Goodbye for now. Try and have fun with the other kids!"
"Yeah, this place is exceptional!" said Olivert, which didn't comfort Shayna at all. "Bye, Shayna."
The doc waved goodbye to her and said "Happy Festivities!" to Miss Blitzer as he exited. Shayna put one hand up and then put it back down as soon as he and Olivert were out the door. She looked down again, not thinking about anything in particular.
Miss Blitzer tapped Shayna on the shoulder. "Here—you're all cut up and dirty, Shayna! We should get you a bath. Does that sound good?"
Shayna only nodded in consent, though she didn't really like to take a bath.
"Okay, you can tell me about what happened if you want too," said Miss Blitzer smiling kindly. "And I'll get you some new clothes. We've surely got some clean. Here, this way." Miss Blitzer extended her hand, which Shayna took after a moment.
Shayna followed Miss Blitzer to the elevator, who hit a button. The elevator doors opened themselves, which Shayna was clueless about. Shayna knew that the red electricity caused it to happen, but she wasn't really sure on the details of how it did it. It was strange, though it was all strange to Shayna anyways, because she'd never seen electricity in action before. Really, everything was new—and foreign. It made Shayna uncomfortable, but she didn't have a choice, and though she didn't want to come to terms with it, this was her home now. Or, at least it seemed that way. The Northern Hemisturn Orphanage. She didn't think about it, but if she would have she would have thought she would be there for a while.
They entered the elevator. On the inside, on the left, Shayna noticed a large collection of glowing buttons. Each button had a numbered printed on it. One, two, three… all the way up to ten. Miss Blitzer hit the number "4" button and the elevator door shut. They started moving, which startled Shayna a little, causing her to lose balance and fall back onto her right foot unbalanced.
"Easy, Shayna," smiled Miss Blitzer. "Have you ever been on an elevator before?"
"No," replied Shayna shortly.
"Not once? Hm," said Miss Blitzer, who was obviously taking all of Shayna in.
"Where are you from, Shayna?"
"Norticine."
"Really? Cold up there, isn't it?"
Shayna didn't reply for a few moments. Miss Blitzer sighed a little. "It's cold down here too," replied Shayna.
Miss Blitzer smiled again, happy for a response. "Yes, this time of year it most certainly is! There's lots of snow!"
"There's a lot of snow where I'm from too," said Shayna, "except a lot more."
"I can imagine," said Miss Blitzer. "I've never been there, though. What's it like?"
Shayna thought a moment. "It's nice. Cold, but nice. During the spring my father and I, we go to The Gleam, which is really beautiful!"
"Oh, yes?" asked Miss Blitzer. "What's that like?"
"Well, it's really colorful—kind of like the lights all around here for The Holy Week—at least during springtime when Papa and I go. There's these plants that shoot out these seeds, which sort of have a trail behind them that is really red! We call it 'going to the fireworks' when we go each spring. It's really nice."
Miss Blitzer was surprised at how easily Shayna was able to speak with her. For a seven year old, she was easy to understand. "That's sounds very nice, Shayna. Your father sounds like a good person."
"He is," said Shayna.
"I'm sure," said Miss Blitzer reassuringly.
The elevator opened and Shayna and Miss Blitzer got off and walked down the hallway to a room with a single bathtub in it.
"Can you do it yourself, Shayna?" asked Miss Blitzer, imagining that Shayna was more than capable.
Shayna nodded.
"Okay," said Miss Blitzer with her reassuring smile again. "I'll go get you a towel and get the water going. Just knock when you're done and then I'll bring you some clothes too, okay?"
Miss Blitzer finished prepping the bathroom and Shayna was left on her own to clean up. The door was closed behind her and, for the first time that day, Shayna was all by herself. She looked down at the clothes she was wearing and took off her hat. Her father had made them.
She stood there for a while, just looking at them. She looked at the mittens she was wearing. She remembered when her father had measured her hands when making them. Her hands were so tiny compared to his. Like always, her father had been quick and calculating in taking the measurements, steadily writing them down too. Only hours afterwards and he'd given her a pair of mittens! He was really handy when it came to stuff like that. The mittens covered Shayna's fingers, so she took them off and threw them to the floor, near the tub.
She stared at the mittens and walked over by them, peering into the tub as she did so. She was still fully clothed, but sat in the tub anyways, soaking her clothes all the way through. The water was warm compared to how cold she'd been, though she hadn't really noticed. A few moments passed and Shayna looked at the door, making sure that nobody was there. Another moment passed. Shayna was staring at the water. She'd been in the tub long enough now that the water had become still. She was holding her legs with her arms crossed, curling up into a ball. She stared at the water still… not doing anything but watching it do nothing.
She moved her right arm a little and felt something in her pocket. It was small and hard and Shayna didn't know what it could be. She moved around more, sending ripples throughout the still water, trying to get into her pocket. Eventually, she pulled out the red rock from before, along with the letter her father had given her, which was soaked. In her haste, Shayna had forgotten all about them, and was surprised.
She looked at the rock seriously. It was glowing scarlet beneath the surface of the water, illuminating the letter, and it was beautiful to Shayna, but she hated it. It and the letter were the last things her father had ever given her, but the stone was also the thing that had brought those men to her house. It was the thing that completely ruined her entire life! It was a curse, she decided. It was something evil that she couldn't stand and so she threw it as hard as she could against the wall opposing her. It went flying and crashed into the wall, falling with a few red sparks to the floor.
Shayna looked at the letter, which was folded up four times into a small square of paper. Shayna crumpled it up and threw it as hard as she could against the wall too. It plopped to the floor where Shayna didn't care what happened to it. She hated both of the items her father had given to her right before she was driven away. The stone had done that, driven her away. The letter had brought her here to the orphanage, a place where she didn't want to be. She wanted to be home, back in the small cabin in the woods by the fire, reading all about Hemisturn. She wasn't ready to be by herself within it. An overwhelming sense of despair Shayna had never felt before was coming over her.
Shayna thought so much about what had happened that she began to get angry and didn't even care about the stone or the spark or the paper. They didn't mean anything that mattered; nothing really mattered to her anymore. She was so mad, she couldn't even think. She hit the top of the water a few times angrily, but quickly fell back against the side of the white tub and stopped moving entirely.
Shayna closed her eyes. Finally, she gasped. She began to cry as hard as she'd ever cried. Every underlying thought she hadn't thought during the day came out. Her papa was gone, she was alone, and she wasn't ever going to see him again. She couldn't stop the thoughts from pouring out now that she was alone. And she couldn't stop the tears.
She was quiet, but Miss Blitzer, who'd been sitting on a chair outside the bathroom with clothes for Shayna, still heard her. She opened up the door a few moments after Shayna had begun crying and rushed in.
"Oh, sweetie!" she said. She grabbed the towel and picked up Shayna from the bathtub, drying her off a little and wrapping her up. "It's alright, Shayna. It's okay." Miss Blitzer shushed Shayna while she wept. They were sitting in the corner of the bathroom. Shayna completely let herself go—she couldn't help it—and buried her face into Miss Blitzer.
Miss Blitzer kept shushing her until she calmed down. Eventually, Shayna stopped, her eyes bloodshot red against the normal blue.
Miss Blitzer shushed a little more and asked gently, "do you want to talk about it?"
Shayna shook her head.
"Alright… then let's get you cleaned up, okay?" said Miss Blitzer. "You'll feel better, I promise."
Shayna doubted it, but she nodded again and Miss Blitzer shut the door.
Before they left the bathroom Shayna hurried to grab the stone and paper. Though the paper was still wet, she crammed it inside of her pocket anyways, doing the same with the stone in the opposite pocket. Miss Blitzer didn't notice that Shayna had picked anything up.
After Shayna was all cleaned up and feeling a little bit better, and also wearing new clothes, Miss Blitzer asked her if she'd like to go meet the other children. She hoped it would keep Shayna's mind off of thinking about her father.
She extended her hand, kindly speaking. "Come on, I'll introduce you to some of the kids if you want."
Shayna was scared to meet any children and automatically froze up, not really giving any kind of response back to Miss Blitzer.
She smiled. "Promise they won't bite."
Shayna was confused and looked up in a curious sort of way. "Bite?" she asked.
"Yeah!" laughed Miss Blitzer. "Come on, you'll do just fine. I think it will be good for you."
They went back down the elevator. On the way, Shayna couldn't help but think that her clothes were a little bit baggy—and they also smelled funny to her. They were a long sleeved red shirt and a pair of the blue pants Shayna had seen others wear on the train earlier. Miss Blitzer had called them jeans, but when Shayna had asked why they were called that, Miss Blitzer had no response, except for: "Well, you're one curious little girl, Shayna!" When they got down to the lobby, as it was called, Miss Blitzer began directing Shayna to the left.
They walked to the end of the hall, briskly and calmly, taking their time. Shayna took the time she had to observe inside the glass rooms they passed on the way there. She saw children—a lot of children—playing with toys in one room. In another she saw children who were older than her, and who were sitting at desks facing a large glass board that covered an opposing wall, which was ringed with the red electricity the doc had told her about. On it, the teacher was moving her hands and bringing up different pictures and sounds. She was also writing on it with a sort of fat red pencil, apparently a non-parent teacher teaching her non-daughter and non-son students about something, like Shayna's father had told her about.
"Is this a school too?" asked Shayna.
"Why, yes it is! At least for the younger children. When you get old enough you go to Medium School, then Upper School. What this is here is considered Lower School."
"Oh," she said. "How old do you have to be to go to Medium School?"
"Well, when most children start they're usually about to turn nine years old, or will be throughout the school year."
"Oh… guess I'd be in the Lower School then," remarked Shayna.
"Yes, actually. Would you like to be?"
"I guess," said Shayna. "My papa taught me a lot already, but I don't know if it's like what you teach here."
"Well, we'll see, Shayna," said Miss Blitzer very reservedly. They walked on in silence.
Shayna started daydreaming and a strange feeling came over her. In a way, she realized she was seeing things from a fairytale. She had only read about the things she was seeing, but seeing them made them all the more real. Everything she'd been taught was real, and she was right next to it! Hemisturn, electricity, which she actually hadn't known about, the orphanage. It was all so strange. One day she was nearly frozen to death by an icy storm five kilometers from the home she'd never ever left before, and the next she was in a book she'd but only read part of, now searching for the rest of the words scribbled out among everything that was around her. A sense of the surreal came over her, and she was curious and excited to see what the orphanage would bring her. She even began to feel hopeful again. If all this was possible—was real—then perhaps her father could get himself to the orphanage. Maybe it was possible—could be a reality. Maybe there was still a kind of hope. Shayna hadn't quite given up yet, she decided. Not until she knew with absolute certainty that her father was never coming back. Until then, she would explore this new world of hers and discover its mysteries. She just hoped she wouldn't be waiting too long.
Shayna and Miss Blitzer reached the end of the hall and stopped. Miss Blitzer pointed to the room on the left, which was glass on the side nearest Shayna like the rest. She could see the children from the elevator earlier playing with an array toys and games, which were lying in various places around the room.
"Here we are!" exclaimed Miss Blitzer. "Now, don't be too shy! They're all really nice children. I'll introduce you to them, though I'm sure you'll hit it off just fine!"
Shayna looked up to her.
Miss Blitzer just smiled, opening the room's door and pulling Shayna in. "Class!" she announced. "Class!"
All of the children stopped what they were doing after the second call and looked up.
"Class," continued Miss Blitzer. "This is Shayna."
Shayna stood in the open as Miss Blitzer talked, looking around at the faces of the kids. Shayna counted them and there turned out to be nine of them. A few stood out to her.
There was one boy, who had dark black hair. He was staring at Shayna. Shayna stared back at him for a moment, but then continued to look around. Another face that stood out to her was that of another girl, who had light brown hair and a pointed kind of face. She wasn't really looking at Shayna, but at Miss Blitzer.
There was also one other face that stood out to Shayna. It was the blonde-haired boy who'd looked back at her earlier. He looked at her curiously again with a kind of intent look, big blue eyes gazing. She looked down quickly after noticing him. Though she didn't particularly know why, she felt nervous with him looking at her.
Shayna was looking down most of the time while Miss Blitzer was speaking, but still noticed a few other things around the room, like the toys, which there were many of. She also saw a few small tables sitting in the front of the room on the right, and also another small one in the back right. There were balls and other small dolls and figures lying around, here and there everywhere on the floor, which Shayna had never seen before, which made her somewhat curious, despite her mood.
Miss Blitzer finally finished speaking and looked down to Shayna. "Alright, now. It's Friday afternoon, so there's not much to do today. They'll just be playing until dinner time. Here," she nudged Shayna a little. "Go make some friends!"
Miss Blitzer went to shut the door and smiled back at Shayna as she did so. "Go on," she said shooing her.
Shayna walked forward slowly. Most of the kids had gone back to what they were doing, though the blonde boy was still staring at her. She avoided his gaze and walked the other way. Another girl quickly approached her. It was the girl with the pointed face.
"Hi!" she said, holding up her hand. "What's your name, again?"
"It's Shayna."
"Oh! Well, hi, Shayna! I'm Emilia! You can call me Emi though, if you like."
"Okay," said Shayna.
Emi looked behind her and pointed at a small table. "Ever played it?" she asked.
"No," said Shayna, uninterested at first, but then curious. "What is it?"
"It's weird," said Emi. "Let me show you!"
They walked over to the table. It was made of glass and looked similar to the board that Shayna had seen the teacher writing on. Emi pushed a button and a red ring lit up around the edges of the table. The glass in the middle lit up too and two projections popped up. They were holograms, each an animal.
"What do you call this glass thing?" asked Shayna, pointing at the screen.
"This?" pointed Emi.
Shayna nodded.
"Oh, it's a plex!"
"Oh," said Shayna. "Never heard of that word before."
"Well, you have now! Here," started Emi. "Watch."
Shayna recognized the animals hovering over the plex. They were a grandor and a leot. She'd read about them. They lived in Den Sekrin, The South. The leot was small and had a scrunched face with whiskers. Its body was covered in red fur that was really prickly. The grandor, on the other hand, was a huge beast, several times bigger than a normal person. It had bluish-grey skin and two large horns in on top of where its mouth was. It had no fur, but had tough enough skin to survive in the harsh environment of The South.
"Woah," said Shayna.
"Cool, isn't it?" said Emi. "Watch this!"
Emi hit an arrow below the hologram of the leot, which was closest to her. It changed and went through an array of other animals, each one popping up as a hologram every time she clicked one of the arrows.
"How does it do that?" asked Shayna.
Emi shrugged. "I dunno. I just know how to use it."
Shayna shrugged too. "Okay," she said. "So what's this game called?"
"Animeauxen!" said Emi, which meant Animals.
"Okay. How do you play it?"
Emi put a finger up and pushed a button on the glass screen. "Watch!"
She continued to hit the arrows on her side until she reached the leot again. She pushed another button underneath the arrows and a green line popped up underneath of the leot. She went over to Shayna's side and did the same with the grandor.
"Okay," she said. "Now we just push the big blue button," she pushed a large blue button on the screen, "and we can play!"
The screen changed into a large desert. The grandor and the leot were moving around in it freely, eating random shrubbery and making noises as they patted and chugged along. Everything on the screen looked real, except smaller.
Shayna was perplexed. She didn't quite know what to do with the grandor, though, so she just watched Emi until she did something.
Emi pushed on the screen and the leot ran towards where she'd pressed down. Seeing this, Shayna tried the same. She pushed on the left side and the grandor ran from where he was to the left, even enthusiastically. Shayna was beginning to forget she was in an orphanage and started to imagine that she was in a desert telling a grandor what to do and having it obey her! She was excited.
"What now?" asked Shayna, looking up to Emi.
Emi started. "Well, first we have to pick a level. Here." She clicked on some more buttons. "Then we have to team up and find food and other things around the environment here!"
Shayna didn't say anything, but instead looked down to the screen and copied what Emi was doing. Eventually, after a little time, they were foraging the area around them and then moving outside of the box of the screen, which moved outwardly to new land as they clicked further in the corners. They stuck together, though, because the screen wouldn't allow them to leave the box they were in until they were close enough to each other. Shayna had been skeptical on whether or not she would be able to do it, but she was picking up quickly.
"Cool!" said Shayna, who'd never even heard the word until earlier when Emi had said it. Shayna wasn't sure if she was using it right and looked up to Emi, trying to anticipate her reaction.
Emi confirmed with a "yeah, it is cool! You can do a lot of other stuff too."
Shayna was relieved.
They played the game for a while longer, but Shayna was beginning to become bored. It was fun, but really all there was to do was run around and eat things. Every time they did there'd be a screen describing the plant that was being eaten, but plants really did not interest Shayna, though they seemed to interest Emi quite a bit.
"Uhm, Emi."
"Yeah?"
"Can we play something else?"
The question caught Emi off guard a little. "Uh, yeah, okay! You wanna go over there and play with the blocks?" she pointed to the corner on Shayna's left.
Shayna looked over to see the blonde boy who'd been staring at her earlier. He wasn't by himself, though, like she'd seen him earlier. He was with another boy, the boy with the dark black hair. They were both working together on a large skyscraper building that was made of large interlocking tan blocks. It went from the ground up and the top was beginning to grow taller than both the two boys, who were having a harder and harder time reaching it.
Shayna thought that the blocks looked like fun, but decided to ask Emi about the blonde boy.
"Hey, Emi. Who's the blonde boy?"
"Uhm, that's Aaronne. The boy next to him… I forget his name. We don't talk much, but they seem nice enough. I think they'll share!" Emi began running over before Shayna had the chance to tell her to wait. Shayna tried saying something, but then stopped when she realized it was too late. She didn't want to go over there. She was too nervous, so she hung back, listening to Emi.
"Hey! Do you guys mind if we come over and play too?" asked Emi enthusiastically.
The two boys looked at each other, surprised. "Uh… sure!" they both said in unison.
Emi looked back for Shayna and saw that she was still at the Animals table. She waved for her to come over.
Shayna gulped and walked over slowly. When she got over, the black-haired boy said hello and introduced himself.
"Hiya! I'm Fernan! How old are you guys?"
Shayna looked at him only, ignoring the blonde boy Aaronne, who was standing right next to him. "I'm seven," said Shayna. "But I'm almost eight. How old are you?"
"I'm eight!" said Fernan. "My friend Aaronne is seven, though. He'll be eight soon too!"
Aaronne didn't say anything, but waved one of his hands in the air as a greeting. He was still working on the tower they were building, nearly finishing the top portion.
Shayna thought it was strange that he'd stared at her for so long before, but would hardly acknowledge her now that she was right in front of him. She felt nervous still, but was gaining a little more courage by talking to Fernan, who seemed nice enough.
"So…," said Fernan. "There are some blocks here if you guys wanna build something. You can build pretty much anywhere except where Aaronne is building. He's really into it right now… he does that. Aaronne, are you there?" He snapped his fingers by Aaronne's face, which didn't faze his concentration.
He breathed in quickly and then yelled, "Aaronne!" more loudly than was necessary.
A few of the kids turned to look at him. Aaronne looked at him for a moment too, though, narrowing his eyes in annoyance. He quickly went back to building.
Fernan looked to Shayna. "He's just concenrrating. Don't mind him," choked out Fernan.
"I think you mean concentrating, Fernan," corrected Emi.
"Yeah!" said Fernan. "That!"
With that they all got to building. Fernan went back to helping Aaronne and Emi and Shayna began building their own tower. After a while they'd gotten it pretty high, but it was proving difficult to make. The interlocking blocks had to be arranged in certain ways to fit well enough to be able to stack them higher. Once they got to about half the height of Aaronne's tower they began messing up a lot. They kept trying and trying, but eventually Shayna was ready to give up. She set down a block she'd been trying to fit into the other various blocks on her tower for about twenty minutes and plopped herself down on the floor, pouting.
"Shayna, this is really hard!" said Emi.
"Yeah, I know! I'm done. I don't feel like building anymore." She stayed where she was sitting and was soon joined by Emi. It was getting later and they were getting tired. Shayna hoped they'd be able to get something to eat soon. She hadn't eaten the entire day.
After a few minutes, Aaronne and Fernan finished their tower, which was nearly two heads higher than what it had been when Shayna and Emi had first come over.
Shayna and Emi were both wondering how they'd done it. Shayna spoke up.
"Hey. How'd you guys do that?"
Fernan looked over. "I don't know. We just did it. It was mostly Aaronne, though." He pointed to Aaronne, who didn't say anything.
"He doesn't talk much, rearlly. Well, we talk, but you're new, so it might be a while until he talks to you."
"I think you mean really," suggested Emi.
"Yes, rearlly,"said Fernan.
Shayna ignored her comment and went back to talking about Aaronne.
"Why?" asked Shayna.
"I dunno. Ask him!" said Fernan.
Shayna looked over to Aaronne who was looking at her now. "Hey, why won't you talk to me?"
Aaronne just shrugged.
"Well, that's no answer!" said Shayna.
Aaronne looked away from her and didn't do anything else.
"Hey!" said Shayna. "I'm talking to you!"
Aaronne turned his head calmly and looked down at Shayna.
"I don't have to answer you," said Aaronne, whose voice was just a little deeper than Fernan's—and edgier.
This made Shayna madder than she was already becoming. "Who does he think he is?" she thought.
She spoke up again. "Fine! That doesn't bother me!"
Aaronne wasn't bothered either, but sighed. "Here," he said. He walked over to their tower and picked up the block Shayna had been stuck on. He then picked up another that was lying near Shayna's foot and pushed it into proper position with the other one. He handed it to Shayna.
"You put this onto the top."
Shayna took it from him and looked at it. "Thanks," she said.
Aaronne didn't say anything and soon Miss Blitzer was coming into the room, announcing that dinner was ready.
"We'd better go," said Fernan to everybody. "I'm rearlly hungry."
Emi looked over at Fernan with a blank look on her face, leaning on her right side and tilting her head back. Shayna and Aaronne looked at him too.
"What?" said Fernan.
Everybody shook their head. Even Aaronne.
Quickly, all four kids went out the door and followed the rest of the kids from their room, and the kids from the other rooms, behind Miss Blitzer to the dining hall.
Shanya noticed that most of the kids, especially the older kids, were hurrying to get to the dining hall. Some of them were nearly sprinting even, yet Aaronne hung back, seemingly uninterested in the prospect of eating. Fernan hung back too, but Shayna had the feeling he wouldn't be if it weren't for Aaronne. She supposed they stuck together a lot.
Emi stayed by Shayna. They walked just ahead of Aaronne and Fernan, making a good pace to the dining hall.
Soon, everybody had reached the entrance to the dining hall, causing a massive congestion. There were children everywhere trying to scramble their way in. They ran, they pushed, they shoved, they bumped. It was chaos. Shayna was glad she had stayed back away from it all.
It reminded her of a flight of honeybirds. A honeybird, or syrpeopa as it is in Norticine, was a bird that flew to northern Nortisha during springtime. Where Shayna and her father lived there were usually many honeybirds who flew up during that time of year.
The honeybirds would fly up for the fair temperatures, because Nortisha did not have very hot summers, but instead had mild and comfortable summers, which suited the honeybirds just fine.
The main reason they came up, though, was to eat honey from the honeycombs, which were made by the bees that lived in the forest during spring, summer, and fall. They hung from large trees, guarded by the bees that made them, though this hardly stopped the honeybirds from taking it, though. Whole flights, ten to a hundred large, would gang up on one honeycomb and peck at it until it dropped to the forest floor. A small group would then carry it away from the homeless bees, leading the rest away to follow and eat at a safer location.
Unlike the honeybirds, though, the group in front of her was not as tactical. They were like confused honeybirds, flying around, not really sure where to go, but still hoping to get a piece of the honeycomb to eat.
Shayna and Emi backed up a little more to accommodate for the space that'd been taken up in front of them by all of the children. She began to wonder about whether or not she should be up there too, else she worried she might not get to eat. She was so hungry.
Suddenly, a large figure appeared down the hallway and began to yell out loudly to the children, instructing them sternly to form a line in front of the doorway. It was a woman, a large woman. She was very tall and very plump, though not really fat. Shayna found her strange looking, as she hadn't ever seen anyone as large as her—not even her father. With her physique, the plump lady had no problem putting herself between the children at the front of the door trying to get in, which she gladly did. She even went as far as to pick one child up and set him down in the line that was quickly forming at her presence.
Shayna could guess that listening was the usual, and probably intelligent, response from the children when they saw this abnormally large beast of a woman, thus Emi and she quickly got in line behind Aaronne and Fernan, who had gotten into line almost as quickly as the lady had appeared. She yelled for a long while, but when she stopped, Shayna found a chance to lean over to Emi and whisper to her, discreetly and in a curious manner.
"Hey, Emi."
She spoke carefully and quietly. "Yeah?"
"Who is she?" asked Shayna.
"She's Miss Dubline. She's the head."
"The head?" asked Shayna, who was confused by the term. "What do you mean?"
"It's--," said Emi, quickly silencing herself as Miss Dubline began to grow nearer.
Miss Dubline walked down the line, slowly, carefully making absolutely sure that the children were processing themselves through the doorway precisely in the manner in which she saw fit. She didn't notice her at first, but quickly she saw Shayna, whom she soon realized she did not recognize. She approached her quickly and, because of her sheer size, seemed to Shayna to enclose around her.
"You! Hey, who are? What's your name?" She barked out in a deep, thunderous voice.
Shayna looked up at her, scared and hesitant to reply. Her hesitance only made things worse, as Miss Dubline was impatient and could find no time to wait for Shayna to find her tongue.
With the impatient thoughts in mind, Miss Dubline yelled out again. "Can you speak, girl? What's your name?"
Shayna mouthed quietly, "Shayna."
"What was that?" barked Miss Dubline.
"It's Shayna," she said a little louder, croaking in discomfort.
"Now, that's much better Shayna!" she said in mock, sarcastic appraisal. "My name is Miss Dubline. I'm the Head of The Northern Orphanage of Hemisturn, as you would be good to know, that is if you didn't already. I'm here to keep things running correctly and to keep you children in line. Have you got that straight, Shayna?"
Shayna nodded.
"You're sure?" commanded Miss Dubline, rather than simply clarifying.
Shayna nodded vigorously, only wishing that Miss Dubline would go away. It was as if Shayna had done something wrong and was being punished for it, though she was sure she hadn't. She'd only been standing in line.
Miss Dubline stared at her for a moment with glaring eyes and clarified once more. "You'd be best to remember what I've told you. Understood?"
Shayna nodded again, more vigorously than ever, hoping that her efforts would correspond well with how quickly Miss Dubline would decide to leave.
Miss Dubline nodded. She marched her plump-self back to where she'd come from, whichever abyss that was.
As soon as she was gone, all of the children relaxed. Instantaneously, they resumed their original honeybird status, zooming around wildly and finally getting through the entrance into the dining hall. Shayna, Emi, Aaronne, and Fernan shuffled in from the back. Most of the seats were already taken, but they all found one for themselves in the corner furthest the door. They sat down.
Shayna sat next to Emi and Aaronne next to Fernan, each side, girls and boys, careful not to get too close to the other, for whatever reason. They were quietest of the children and sat in silence as they waited to be told what to do.
The dining hall was large, with high walls and glass chandeliers hanging from the ceilings. They were very artistically designed. Shayna admired them throughout all of the noise, tuning it all out. They had different colors of glass within them. Blue, red, purple, green, yellow, orange, black, white. They seemed to have a sort of old style, which accentuated the old, shining brick walls and the white, if somewhat dirty, marble floors. The colors stood out, though, and made the chandeliers seem a bit out of place, but it wasn't bad. Shayna liked it. She was glad that not everything was so… uniform.
Shayna noticed a counter up at the front of the dining hall where they had entered from. Behind it there were people, dressed in strange-looking white and red clothes. Their clothing covered their bodies in white completely, except for a long red sash, which ran right along down the center of the front and back of their torsos. It went from left shoulder to right hip on both sides. They wore hats too, which looked to Shayna like giant white snowballs. They were large and white and stood atop each one of the person's heads in a lengthy way.
"Hey, who are those people?" asked Shayna abruptly, pointing to the counter.
Emi was about to answer, opening her mouth to do so, when Fernan jumped in, wasting no time to explain something new to Shayna. Also, as Shayna was discovering was usual, Aaronne just sat there, not really paying attention to anyone, but rather thinking about whatever he thought about. He was kind of staring off in front of himself, looking through Shayna. Shayna thought that he may also be listening, but she wasn't sure he cared enough to do that.
"They're the cooks, but we call them chefs. They make our food."
To Shayna it seemed a bit odd to have somebody unfamiliar prepare her food for her. The only person she'd ever had prepare her food was her father, who she was avoiding thinking about, else she was afraid she might cry again. Shayna kind of stared off for a moment at the thought. She was looking through Aaronne, kind of like Aaronne was looking through her.
Even if Aaronne wasn't the nicest or most talkative person she'd ever met, he seemed alright enough. She liked that he didn't talk too much, like Fernan, who was still babbling on about other things around the room, mispronouncing things all the while. Emi was nice enough to listen, but kept correcting him when he said something wrong.
Aaronne had his left hand pressed against his cheek. He was looking down in Shayna's direction, but more at the table than her. They didn't really say much for a while, but eventually Shayna was tired of the silence. She was finding out that she, in fact, was very talkative, and not very shy.
"Hey," said Shayna to Aaronne.
Aaronne looked up. "Hey."
"So…" Shayna didn't know how to put it. "Why are you here?"
Aaronne had a blank expression, which hadn't changed much since she'd met him in the playroom.
"I don't know," he said. "I just am. Why are you here?"
Shayna was actually unsurprised to be asked back. It was a custom of her father's to always return any out of the ordinary questions back to her with another, more self-challenging question, so she was used to the concept.
She shrugged. "My father's gone."
"Where's your mother?" asked Aaronne.
"I don't know… I never knew her."
"Oh," said Aaronne, simply.
A moment passed.
"Did you ever know yours?" asked Shayna.
He shook his head. "Doesn't matter."
"Oh," said Shayna. "What about your father?"
He shook his head. "No. Not really."
"Oh," said Shayna, looking away.
"Don't be too surprised. Most of the other kids were dropped off when they were too young to remember," he added.
Shayna didn't say much to that, but nodded instead.
"Where are you from?" he asked.
"Nortisha," she said.
"Yeah, I thought you might be."
"Why'd you think that?" she asked.
"You have an accent," he said plainly.
"An accent?" asked Shayna.
"Yeah, you sound different than everybody here when you talk."
Shayna squinted. "No I don't."
Aaronne laughed at her denial, which was the only time he'd seemed even a little bit happy. "Yeah, you do. You say your a's and your e's differently than we do here."
Shayna thought about it, but she hadn't noticed any differences in her speaking from that of everyone else.
"I don't believe you," she said. "Why hasn't anyone else told me? Miss Blitzer would have earlier."
She wasn't sure that Aaronne was right, but still feared that maybe Miss Blitzer, Emi, and Fernan were being too polite to mention anything. Maybe Aaronne just didn't care enough to be polite.
Aaronne shrugged. "Maybe nobody has noticed. It's not very obvious."
"Oh…" said Shayna, a little relieved. "Then how'd you notice it?"
Aaronne shrugged. "I dunno. You just sound a little different."
Shayna was a little confused. She was still unsure about whether or not she had an accent, but decided that she'd just go ahead and take his word for it. She didn't think he had any reason to lie about it.
A few moments passed. Fernan was still talking to Emi, trying to figure out what he'd been saying wrongly, while Emi tried to explain it to him, hopelessly. Shayna and Aaronne were sitting in silence again, just waiting. Soon the chefs yelled out that dinner was ready and all of the kids bustled up from their seats towards the counter, actually forming a somewhat straight line from the front of the room to the back. All four of them joined it in the back, which was scrunched for space, but roomy enough to not be too uncomfortable.
Minutes passed as the line moved itself and finally the four of them were at the front. They each received a small, metallic tray with different foods on it, which Shayna had never seen before. They went back to where they'd been sitting and sat down again.
Aaronne, Fernan, and Emi began eating, but Shayna waited a moment, looking down at her food with a strange expression on her face. She literally had no idea what any of it was, and no idea as to whether she'd like it or not.
Aaronne started laughing.
"What?" asked Shayna, a little defensively. She was starting to think that the only thing that would make Aaronne happy was knowing more than her.
Aaronne just shook his head. "You're definitely not from around here."
"Yeah, okay. We all know that… what is this stuff?"
"Aaronne pointed to his tray, pointing out first the large plate, which had on it some sort of meat surrounded by bread.
"This," he explained, "is a soomsch.."
Shayna looked at him oddly. "A soomsch?"
She looked back down at the soomsch and wrinkled her nose at it. It was white on the outside and a brown-red meat color on the inside. It also had some vegetables and other various sauces on it.
"Yeah, it's a kind of sandwich," he said through a mouthful. "Try it."
Shayna looked at Aaronne, who had simply picked it up and began biting into it. She slowly did the same. Surprisingly, she liked it. She hadn't eaten the entire day, so she ate a lot of it before setting it down. She went right through the middle of it, ignoring the sides of the sandwich, so that her cheeks were covered in red sauce.
"What's this made of?" asked Shayna.
"You're weird, Shayna," said Aaronne, noticing her cheeks and shaking his head. "But I don't know. I don't make it, I just eat it."
Shayna thought it was strange that he didn't know, but then again she didn't either. It didn't matter that much, though. She was still curious about the rest of the food on her tray. There was a plate of round brown things on one plate and another much smaller plate with a dark brown square on it.
"What're these two things?" she asked.
"Potato splices and a brownie."
"Which ones which?"
"Well, the brownie is the brown thing..." led on Aaronne, grinning.
Shayna noticed that it was more obvious than she'd originally thought, but was still mad that Aaronne was making fun of her for it. She kicked his leg, annoyed. "How am I supposed to know?"
It didn't hurt Aaronne, so it didn't bother him. "I don't know." He shrugged.
Shayna sighed a little, annoyed that she hadn't done him any damage. She began eating her sandwich again. Neither of them spoke until they were completely done eating all of the food on their trays. Fernan and Emi did the same and it appeared that the rest of the cafeteria did as well, as it had become much quieter. The quietness ended when the food was gone. Soon, everybody was speaking again, just not quite as loudly. It was getting later and all of the children were full and drowsy.
Shayna was feeling sleepy too. Walking around half of Hemisturn had exhausted her, and she wanted to find somewhere to fall asleep. Remembering what Miss Dubline had said, she supposed she would probably have to wait until they put her into a room and told her which bed she could sleep in, else she thought she'd be yelled at again. She waited patiently, leaning on her elbows, her hands pressed against her cheeks, which were still covered in red sauce. It didn't bother her; she was too tired to be bothered by it.
Alhough she tried not to fall asleep, Shayna drifted off into a daze, slipping into a half-dream. She was thinking of her father and the cabin. The red stone and the reindeer. The two men and the storm. The train and all of the other things. She was too exhausted to put it all together. It all floated in her mind insignificantly. She continued drifting and drifting. She drifted off into nothing… into her mind, to endlessness. She was entering oblivion, and it was in a place called The Hemisturn Northern Orphanage, and she had no idea what to do. She didn't think of the future, though. She just continued drifting… and drifting…